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UN officials condemn attack on civilians at food distribution site in Sudan

UN officials condemn attack on civilians at food distribution site in Sudan

United Nations relief officials today strongly condemned an attack on civilians during a food distribution on Wednesday in southern Sudan, the latest in a string acts of of violence this month by the Government and associated militias.

United Nations relief officials today strongly condemned an attack on civilians during a food distribution on Wednesday in southern Sudan, the latest in a string of acts of violence this month by the Government and associated militias.

A joint statement issued by the UN’s top relief official, Kenzo Oshima, and the Executive Directors of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Children’s Fund (UNCIEF) said that a Government helicopter gunship killed 17 civilians and wounded an unknown number of others at the food distribution site near Bieh.

According to the statement, the Sudanese authorities had cleared this food distribution and vulnerable populations had gathered in the location to receive humanitarian relief assistance provided by the UN.

On 2 February facilities belonging to a non-governmental organization (NGO) were looted, and a week later, Government aircraft attacked Nimne, killing five civilians, including one humanitarian worker. On 10 February, two people died and a dozen more were injured when a military aircraft dropped bombs in Akuem, where WFP had just completed food distribution to hundreds of people.

“These acts are especially shocking when set against the backdrop of a population in dire need of assistance and the apology issued last week by the Government of Sudan for the Akuem incident,” said the statement by Mr. Oshima, WFP’s Catherine Bertini and UNICEF’s Carol Bellamy.

“We call on the Government of Sudan to cease all attacks against civilians immediately and to ensure the safety of those trying to provide or receive life-sustaining humanitarian assistance,” they said.

Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, WFP said it started on Wednesday its first emergency food aid distributions, delivering a one-month ration of maize-meal to 40,000 people threatened by serious food shortages in Hwange. The distribution is part of the agency’s larger operation to hand out one-month food rations to more than 100,000 people over the next two weeks.

Distributions to reach some 558,000 people in Zimbabwe’s 19 worst-affected districts in the south, west and extreme north will resume after the March election period, the agency said.

WFP started a large-scale feeding programme for more than half a million people in Zimbabwe last year after food shortages were caused by erratic rainfall, a strong economic downturn coupled with a sharp rise in food prices, and a disruption to the commercial farming sector due to land acquisition activities.